1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display unit called a head mount display, which is mounted on a head and projects a picture in front of eyes, an information processing device using the same, and its system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a user dealing with electronic information carries out an information processing operation by using a device as shown in FIG. 13 which is a schematic view of the information processing device. In the present specification, the information processing operation means to perform input, acquisition, transmission, exchange, storing, classifying, etc, of information by using a computer or the like.
An input terminal unit 11, such as a keyboard or a mouse, is a device by which a user 10 carries out an input operation of information. A control unit 12, such as a computer, connected to the input terminal unit 11 is a device for performing a process, such as storing, calculation, or communication of information. A display unit 13, such as a CRT, is a device for outputting information on a display screen.
Among them, the display unit 13 such as the CRT has a large size, and greatly narrows the space on a desk. Moreover, if its screen size is enlarged to recognize a great deal of display information (characters, pictures, etc.), the space is further narrowed, and its weight becomes considerably heavy, so that the display unit is not suitable for a daily use display. Besides, since the display unit has a bad influence (eyestrain, decline in eyesight, etc.) on human eyes, its long continuous use has been intentionally avoided.
Then a flat display panel using a liquid crystal and the like, which is shallow in the depth of a device as compared with the CRT so that it is lightweight, comes into wide use. Since a liquid crystal panel is lightweight, if it is small, it can be carried. Also, the liquid crystal panel has an advantage that the bad influence on human eyes is small. However, if its screen size becomes large, it becomes expensive as a daily used display. In addition, the flat display panel also narrows the space on a desk.
As a display unit other than the foregoing devices, a display unit called a head mount display (HMD) using a small liquid crystal panel has been known. Since this display unit is mounted on a head and is used, it does not narrow the space, and has a merit that the size of a virtual display screen can be freely changed.
In this display unit (HMD), a picture image is projected on a place distant several cm from a human eye by using an optical system, which image being recognized through human eyes with virtual reality as if the image was displayed on a large display screen. As the scope of its application, plays, such as TV games, appreciation of movies, education, presentation, medical treatment, and the like can be enumerated.
However, the resolution of a conventional HMD is low, and recognition of characters has been difficult. Moreover, when this HMD is continuously used for several hours (two to three hours), considerable fatigue of an eye is felt. Moreover, there is also a case that symptoms like motion sickness occur. Thus, the HMD has been unsuitable for a display unit of an information processing device. It is considered that these problems occur because a distance between the liquid crystal panel and the eye is small so that a flicker becomes noticeable and a bad influence is given to the eye.
This flicker is caused by alternating-current driving that is performed to prevent deterioration of the liquid crystal material and to maintain the quality of display. When a period (polarity inversion period) in which positive and negative polarities of voltage applied to each pixel are inverted comes to be in a frequency range (about 30 Hz) which can be recognized by a human eye, since display when the polarity of a picture signal is positive is subtly different from display when the polarity of the picture signal is negative, the difference is recognized as a flicker.
The number of display pixels of a display has been increasing year after year, and a driving frequency becomes very high for a panel with a large number of pixels. For example, it is said that the NTSC standard requires about 400 thousand pixels, and the HDTV standard requires about 2 million pixels. Thus, the maximum frequency of an input picture signal is about 6 MHz in the NTSC standard, and about 20 MHz to 30 MHz in the HDTV standard. In order to accurately display this picture signal, a clock signal is required to have a frequency (for example, about 50 MHz to 60 MHz) several times higher than that of this picture signal. In future, it is expected that display of high fineness and high quality is increasingly required, and a picture signal with a very fast dot clock is to be treated.
Hitherto, it has been difficult to accurately make alternating current of a picture signal and a clock signal having such a high frequency band range to drive a liquid crystal panel. This is because it has been impossible to form a thin film transistor (TFT) capable of accurately operating in such a high frequency band region by using amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon.
When a picture signal with a very fast dot clock comes to be treated, a writing period of the picture signal to a display pixel becomes short, and in a conventional TFT, there have occurred problems that a phase shift, noise, dulling of a signal waveform, and the like occur, and display becomes inaccurate.
An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing device and its system in which a head mount display is used as a daily use display unit without narrowing space and an information processing operation can be easily carried out by using this display unit.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, an information processing device is characterized in that:
a user carries out an information processing operation by using a display unit comprising flat panel displays for a right eye and a left eye and being mounted on a head of the user; a control unit connected to the display unit; and an input operating unit connected to the control unit.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, an information processing device is characterized in that:
the device comprises a display unit comprising flat panel displays for a right eye and a left eye and being mounted on a head of a user, a communication unit connected to the display unit, and an input operating unit;
the communication unit is used so that the user receives information from a communication partner; and
the input operating unit is used so that information is transmitted to the communication partner.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, an information processing device is characterized in that:
the device comprises a display unit comprising flat panel displays for a right eye and a left eye and being mounted on a head of a user, a communication device, an input operating unit, and a unit for converting voice data of the user into characters;
the input operating unit inputs the voice data of the user;
the unit for converting voice data into characters converts the voice data of the user into characters and transmits them to a communication partner.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, an information processing device is characterized in that:
the device comprises a display unit comprising flat panel displays for a right eye and a left eye and being mounted on a head of a user, a communication unit, an input operating unit, and a unit for converting voice data of a communication partner into characters;
the input operating unit inputs the voice data of the communication partner; and
a conversation with the communication partner is displayed as characters on a virtual display screen provided to the user by the display unit.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in the foregoing first to fourth aspects, the input operating unit is characterized by being a sound collecting unit.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in the foregoing first to fourth aspects, the input operating unit is characterized by being an image pick-up unit.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in each of the foregoing aspects, a channel formation region of a TFT connected to a pixel electrode of the flat panel displays of the display unit is characterized by being made of a semiconductor thin film of a collective of a plurality of rod-like or flattened rod-like crystals formed on an insulating surface.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in each of the foregoing aspects, a surface orientation of the channel formation region is substantially a {110} orientation.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in each of the foregoing aspects, 90% or more of crystal lattices in crystal grain boundaries of the channel formation region have continuity.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in each of the foregoing aspects, the display unit is characterized in that writing of one screen is carried out at 45 Hz to 180 Hz in the flat panel displays, and a polarity of voltage applied to a pixel electrode is inverted for every screen to obtain screen display.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in each of the foregoing aspects, a liquid crystal material of the flat panel displays is an antiferroelectric liquid crystal substantially having no threshold value.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in each of the foregoing aspects, the display unit comprising the flat panel displays for the right eye and the left eye and being mounted on the head of the user is characterized by providing a virtual flat image to the user.
According to one aspect of the present invention, in each of the foregoing aspects, the display unit comprising the flat panel displays for the right eye and the left eye and being mounted on the head of the user is characterized by providing a virtual three-dimensional image to the user.